Teen Slaying Verdict Incites Spectators

NEWPORT NEWS — William Lester "Chip" Sell was given a five-year sentence Friday for shooting a teen-ager dead during a fight in the parking lot of Kingstowne Apartments.

Sell faced up to life in prison on the charge of first-degree murder, but jurors convicted him of voluntary manslaughter, which means the killing was intentional but without malice and premeditation.

Sell will be eligible for parole after 10 months, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis H. Duncan. He said Sell already has served six months of that time in the Newport News Jail, awaiting trial.

Friends and relatives of the dead man, 18-year-old Joey Manas, vented anger and frustration after the verdict. Some warned there could be more violence in retaliation.

"Justice ain't been done," said Steve Jackson, a 19-year-old who witnessed his friend's death. "I'm doing justice. I'm the judge, I'm the jury, and I will convict all of them."

"I would serve five years if I could take his life for killing Joey," Jackson said. "It ain't over yet. I can tell you that."

One of Sell's attorneys, G. Curtis Overman Jr., said the mother of one of his defense witnesses, Bruce Hughes, contacted him Friday morning to say her son had been severely beaten and treated at a hospital the night before.

Hughes could not be reached Friday. Overman said he did not know the details of the alleged incident, but Jackson said his friends were angry about some comments Hughes made the night Manas was killed.

"If I would have been there last night, Bruce Hughes would not have made it to the hospital," Jackson said. "They would have needed four or five ambulances to pick up the body parts."

Jackson, who testified for the prosecution Thursday, said he was not present Friday because he was at work. Security was tight in Circuit Judge J. Warren Stephens' courtroom, with as many as 10 deputies on hand. Spectators were checked with hand-held metal detectors at the door and their purses were searched for weapons.

The shooting occurred about 10 p.m. Dec. 8, after Manas and three friends left a Christmas party in the clubhouse of Kingstowne Apartments. They went to Hughes' apartment in the complex, but were asked to leave, witnesses agreed.

Manas became upset and punched Hughes as he was about to return to the party, several witnesses said. Sell, testifying Friday in his own behalf, said it was just a few seconds before Manas and several friends ran back and started beating people with clubs and baseball bats.

"It didn't take them long to get there and devastate everybody," Sell said, adding that he was knocked to the ground and kicked a few times by Manas' friends.

Sell also said he went into Hughes' apartment and grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun to scare the Manas group off. He said he loaded a single shell into the gun in their presence so they would know he was not bluffing. He said he fired when Manas moved quickly toward him in a threatening manner.

"He looked to me like he was intending to hurt me real bad or kill me," Sell said.

After the trial, Sharon Manas, mother of the dead man, said she was upset with Overman's portrayal of her son as a violent punk always looking for a fight.

"Joey was not a bad kid and he didn't deserve to die," she said.

Other family and friends, while admitting that Manas had a temper and would not back down from fights, also recalled the young man's gentler side Friday evening.

"That's not the real Joey," said Linda Jackson, a longtime friend and sister of Steve Jackson. "He was an oversized teddy bear."

Jackson, 22, said she was angry at the police and prosecutors for not conducting a better investigation. She complained that teen-agers were called to the stand, although several adults - including Manas' grandmother - were at the party.

Jackson said she also witnessed the shooting, and she insisted none of Manas' friends had any weapons during the fight that preceded the gun blast.

"Nobody came and asked me a thing," she said. "They needed some adults up there to testify."

Jackson also worried about the fallout from Friday's sentence, but wouldn't predict whether any of Manas' friends would hurt Sell when he is released from prison.

"What do you think?" she said. "You saw them boys up there. You saw how upset they were."